ARE Leicester City FC about to make Loughborough University their training base?

The county’s only professional football club is considering using the state of the art facilities there on a permanent basis after they announced they are considering leaving their Belvoir Drive training ground in the centre of the city.

Last year, the University signed a memorandum of understanding with The Foxes to build up a working relationship with the club who were keen to take advantage of the world class amenities.

At the time Leicester remained tight lipped over whether they would move their training permanently to the University.

The announcement they are looking for a replacement for Belvoir Drive has fuelled the rumours even further.

The club’s chief executive Lee Hoos commented: “We enjoy a great relationship with Loughborough University and they have excellent facilities. If we decided to leave our current training ground at some point, we would not rule Loughborough University out. We would certainly give it the serious consideration it deserves.”

When asked about City building a permanent base at Loughborough the University’s director of sport Chris Earle said: “The University has a good working relationship with Leicester City FC and we’d be interested in developing that further.”

The University themselves are currently building a mini football stadium for Loughborough University FC, their Midland Alliance side who are currently ground sharing at the NSG with Loughborough Dynamo.

The on-campus ground was due to be built by the end of 2007 but the University FC are yet to move in.

Leicester have trained at the campus in the past while three of their sports science staff studied at Loughborough and they also have two interns from the University.

Earlier in the season a Leicester reserve side took on an England Universities team who are coached by Loughborough coaches while the University was part of the City’s unsuccessful bid to be a part of the 2018 World Cup bid.